The present invention relates to the technology of detecting an object based on information from a transmitted wave and a received wave.
In the case of detecting an object using a radar apparatus, a relative distance and a relative speed of the object are detected from peak signals which are detected by a difference in frequency between a transmitted signal obtained from a transmitted wave and a received signal obtained from a received wave through mixing of the transmitted signal and the received signal. Here, the peak signal means a frequency spectrum having a signal intensity that is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.
Also, in the case of detecting an object based on a FM-CW system, a relative distance and a relative speed of the object are detected by extracting peak signals from an up period and a down period of a transmitted signal and a received signal and combining the peak signals between the up period and the down period. Here, the combination of the peak signals is determined by information on a speed of a vehicle provided with a radar apparatus, and a signal intensity and an angle of a peak signal, and is used to control the vehicle as object data.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-2004-12198
However, if the peak signal in the up period and the peak signal in the down period are wrongly combined to cause a miss-pairing, there is a possibility that the vehicle is controlled based on wrong object data. For this, Patent Document 1 describes that if moving object data exists in an area of continuous standstill object data, it is processed as a miss-pairing. According to this process, in the case of determining whether the moving object data is caused by miss-pairing, the detection of the continuous standstill object data is set forth as a premise, while in the case where the continuous standstill object data is not detected, it may not be possible to determine whether the moving object data is caused by miss-pairing. Accordingly, in the case where the continuous standstill object data does not exist, the vehicle control is performed based on wrong pairing data, and thus the safety of the vehicle user may be retarded.